First published in 1995, “The Tortilla Curtain” (German title: “América“) by T.C. Boyle deals with the conflict between cultures and values. The first conflict targeted by the author is the paranoid fear of Southern Californian suburbanites of being overrun by illegal immigrants from Mexico . The novel exposes the human primal fear which take over in view of imaginary threats, switching rational liberals to panic-driven xenophobes. Another conflict occurs with nature, as humans push more and more into the wild countryside, trying to retain a highly regulated environment.
Courtesy of Arno Declair.